Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1887-09-19
SOLD LIKE CATTLE.
How The Yankees Trade en- the Ignar-
aDco of Foreigners and Work Their
Rocky Farms with Cheap Labor.
PHI d OF III acknowledgements work
of an Intelligence ONCE.
New York Herald.

New York Herald.
% in Massachusetts, IN the confines 0.
the beautiiu! Connecticut valley and on
the slopes Of the green hills that shelter
it, many farms Of fifty, sixty or 100 acres
each are HOW being worked by strange
pecple-uncouth emigrents, ignorant OF
the English tongue and strange TO Yankee
ways.
They are Poles, Hungarisns, Magyars,
Danes aud Swedes, with whose igucr-
anco The tanners put up because they are
cheap, strong and capable o. doing hard
and a.esdy work on little food of the
cosrsest quality and used to living in the
most squaI!d quarters.
II their ignorance they are exposed TO
many indignitiea; they are given cften 10
wages, or 81 best the smallest; they tini
hardship after hardship piled on their
shoulders by mean ard stingy employers;
they are terrcrized by threats OF the
law America is no L! Dorado for them.
Slowly through their sluggish minds
cIeeps the id2s thGt things ere not as
they might be. They wake Up to ia !
themselves sl,ves, for they see plenty
around them snd the native lab0rers well
treated aud UNNECESSARILY better Off
They complain 10 their masters and f.r
repl7 have brutal laughter and claw,
law wciie & written contract Is shaken
in thei: fsces. Then they are made to
understand that they have sold them
selves u enc nan By g few words Cn g
bit OF p.pgr, and by him have been sold
TO another Tor the time IS much as ever
slaves were sold.
Sd awakening that,
Scme run away, leaving their scanty
baggage, al taey brought from Europe
Some are wise tpOu-h 20 stick out the
year, learn Gll they can and make their
own terms then. Some don't know what
they can 90 and 60 on s,olidIy ard sui
lenly 'grinding in the prison houses"
THE MAN AND HIS IMMIGRANTS.
Every one mas some sombre story 20
tell OF aard grinding, iu-paid toll and i'll
treatment.
4 Herald reporter heard soma Of them
las. week IN the Connecticut Valley, and
set out to investigate the stories, TO learn
how the immigrants fresh from Castle
Garden get so speedily into Massschu-
sets, 200 miles away, and how these indi-
Y!dgaI farmers WHO never saw New York
get these men under such lroLcled con
tracts. He found that the fine old city OF
Northampton, M:ss,, where philanthropy
and education walk hand in hand under
the gisut elm trees, was the place where
the iSrgest jobber IN contract immigrant
farm l8ocr known to Castle Garden nad
his fCtii e. a sC-calei intelligence Office.
He is Charles T. Parsons, 8 Maple
street farmer, urge, stout man, with
light bro @n hair snd beard, and IN over
shrewd, even foxy face OF s New England
type. He went ilto business seven or
elg4t EeGTs agO, st the time of the great
foods sad suffering in Hungary, when so
many mel LEFT that Gesolste region for
tLiS country.
During the first few years be was &C
cUpj-d IS s regular and Legitimate labor
sGelt a the Labor Burexu at C3sJle Gar
QcH, ard ne Yves thought to secure good
situations Tor the immigrants il farm Is-
bs-, al to 10 veil by them ii general.
Bus The uthjrities of the Glrden became
dis,rus.ful, 10 say tee least, OF lis meth
DDS and work, snd fer two PEARS they
have refused 10 have anything 20 DO VITA
him or 10 allow him within the Garden.
lie nSs in consequence Of late secured his
immigrants in "Little Castle Garden" at
No. 81 Greenwich street, FItZpatrick's ia
telligeEce office.
THE RUNNERS PREY.
Fitzpatrick secures his customers by
force, one might say. His henchmen,
lazy, tOnguey immigrants who would
rather live Dy their INSCRIPTIONS wits
than by labor, hang around the Battery
as the newly arrived immigrants stroll
cut CT Castle Garden. These new corners
are too impatient after their forced con-
= -
the Labor Bureau feds them work, They
fall s ready prey to these runners, who
volubly claim ID come from the same
province or even the same village, and
overflow with the milk Of human kind
ress as they steer them s.raightway to
Greenwich street and iSnd them dexter
ously IL the dismal looking Intelligence
office.
"Wo,k? Yes, yes, nc end to It. Good
work, lIgGt work, nice farm work Up in
the country. Better wages than you
ever had before" That in polyglot, in
the vociterous people.
Out c0mes the contract-it is filed out;
TIE hapless immigrant, half dszed,
touches The pen" or makes his mark,
gLd he, with his family if he has one, is
labor 10 be transferred TO the Massachu-
sets farms.
SIGNING IRoNCLAD CONTRACTS.
This is TIE labor contrsct they sign:
NRW YORK, -, 1855.
In consideration of the employment fur
nished Us by Charles T. Parsons # North
amp;iCn, Mass, rot over Fix hours ride
distant, we agree 10 work for him, or where
he p aces us unoer this contract, for -
months at s, less expenses, $. payment
10 b" mhde at end of time, excepting what
We need fer n,Cessarits. Understanding
further, baggage 10 be holden for all money
advanced, and If we fail TO ill this contract
we GO not expect our wsges. The said en-
ploycr also agrees, If we do well, at the ex-
pration of the time 10 give US extra $.
SigI ed -----
Witness Interpreter,
On the back is printed clank for en-
dorsement OF the transfer of the contract
l.S h.